PANDA Statement on Exposed Chicago Black Site

BOWLING GREEN – In the past several days, The Guardian and The Intercept, and The Fifth Column have published explosive reports detailing the alleged detention, torture, and rights violations at Homan Square by the Chicago Police Department.

For years, PANDA has been warning Americans about the possibility, and the probability, of war-on-terror tactics codified in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) being used inside the United States on innocent Americans. Now the war on terror has come home.

The 2012 NDAA’s indefinite detention sections, 1021 and 1022, apply the laws of war to the United States, creating a battlefield on US soil where everyone, including U.S. citizens, is the enemy. These sections allow for the extra-judicial use of torture, execution and indefinite detention without charges, trial, access to family, or access to an attorney to be utilized on anyone in the US and on United States citizens anywhere in the world.

There are substantial allegations that the Chicago Police Department applied those very same tactics at Homan Square.

The mayor’s office has referred all inquiries to the Chicago Police Department’s statement.

PANDA was not formed simply to fight a piece of legislation, but the actions behind it. These alleged atrocities at Homan Square must be investigated, and if found accurate, must not be allowed to continue.

Local activists plan to put pressure on Chicago’s mayor to launch an investigation into Homan Square, and PANDA endorses this action.